Your daily dose of old, new and everything blackened. Hails.

american

Wrapping up the two part LISTCRUSH series of the releases that resonated and affected us the most throughout 2017, here’s the top 40 full-length albums. A little late, but last year was absolutely monolithic for Black Metal in general so what was originally going to be a top 20 stretched out to 40, and could have easily continued to 100. As in Part One, every single one of these albums and artists is highly recommended for your full attention. Enjoy.

One of Ukranian dark ambient maestro Severoth‘s many solo projects, now he channels the violence and terror of the cosmic void. Whenever I needed a quick fix of blistering, uncompromising savagery I always went straight to this beast.

~

37: EVILFEAST – ‘Elegies of the Stellar Wind’ (Eisenwald)

This Polish gem crept silently in right at the death of the year and enchanted me with its ethereal, cold grimness. Magic.

Alex Poole‘s second entry into these lists. As I said in a previous article, this “will split your mind off into several simultaneous perceptual tangents allowing reality to become both an entirely new proposition and completely inconsequential all at once”. Mental.

I was a big fan of the Finns previous effort ‘Havulinnaan’ so when I first heard ‘Kelle Surut Soi’ I was a little disappointed by the differences, as they’d seemingly toned down a large part of what I enjoyed about them. Then I actually opened my ears, and holy shit.

~

30: THE CLEARING PATH – ‘Watershed Between Firmament and the Realm of Hyperborea’ (I, Voidhanger Records)

Italian prodigy Gabriele Gramaglia pushing everything into the stratosphere. Black Metal taken to almost incomprehensible new heights. Could have been higher up the list on a different day.

Easily should have landed on more lists. As I wrote once before: “Five years was worth the wait; they’ve created a perilous album with an undeniable power that will bend you to its will. A trek down black metal’s many dark and winding paths; a sinister, ritualistic experience infused with dangerous occultism and coiled savagery, eyeing you with disdain and contempt, knowing it could tear out your throat with a mere flick of its wrist.” Evil.

The Nightbringer gents pulled off a spectacular coup releasing this and ‘Terra Damnata’ in the same year. An apocalyptic conjuration to rival anything any of them have ever done, including Akhlys. This tore open the earth.

When these men hit their stride nobody can beat them for capturing the essence of ’90s Norway. It isn’t mere imitation; it’s a channeling of powerful natural spirit continuing in the current age. The carriers of the torch forTrue NorwegianBlack Metal.

~

18: VOËMMR – ‘Nox Maledictvs’ (Signal Rex)

Recorded over two nights in an abandoned farmhouse, you can almost feel the spirits of the dead crackling in the air as these Portuguese enigmas coax otherworldly atmospheres from their instruments.

Obliterating the notion of genre constraints since the early ’90s, Norwegians Fleurety are back with a stunningly bizzare rabbit hole from which there is zero chance of escape and even less of understanding. “We were always being normal”…

A churning maelstrom tearing apart the very physics of reality at a molecular level. I’d been following this release from Swiss enigma ASKNT with extreme interest, then when Sentient Ruin Laboratories picked it up for release I couldn’t have been happier. Terrifying. You need this in your life.

How many artists are truly experimenting with black metal, or music in general? For Damjan from mental Serbian/UK project MRTVI it’s gone past the ‘experimental’ stage, he’s now inventing. Full of improvisation and all sorts of sonic abandon, my 2017 list is stacked with avant-garde alchemy but this may just be the most batshit. Anxiety inducing.

I watched the hype slowly creep and then explode on this when it was released, and it was completely deserved. Monstrous, disturbing songs that warp your psyche; this isn’t an album you can dip in and out of. Dive in to the horror.

“A warped, angular beast that lumbers towards you, continuously shape-shifting as body parts and facial features drop off and regrow in a horrifying, gibbering terror. Utterly inhuman.” Many, many more people should have paid attention to this dissonant Australian behemoth of an album. Superb.

Ultimate punishment. These Indian commandos took the gloves clean off with this release and created an all out assault of sonic war crimes, each frenzied blow landing with lazer precision. The most brutal album on this list, and arguably of the year.

Alex Poole does it again. This time allowing a more collaborative effort for his main project, the inclusion of Eric Baker on vocals this time around is absolutely inspired. Top shelf USBM, absolutely essential.

I listened to this album more times than any other over the course of the year. Ukranian demon Severoth‘s second entry into this list is a spellbinding journey through an immersive, frozen world. Something about this release hits me just right. A masterpiece.

Fucking savagery. The US black industrial noise terrorist duo crafted something special here; something hideous and usually hidden but now dragged screaming into the light. The only album I purchased on multiple formats, and it’s pleased me to no end that I’ve seen it pop up on a few other year-end lists. Hanging to see what they do next.

~

2: BLACK CILICE – ‘Banished From Time’ (Iron Bonehead Productions)

Released in early March and never bettered. The raw black metal album of the year. Incredibly affecting, I was lost in its hypnotic swathes of cavernous howls for what felt like an eternity. Atmosphere like no other.

This album crept up on me. I had no idea it would be my album of the year until I was compiling this list, when I realised there could be only one release that could, and should, be at the top. At first listen you think it’s cool and the US crew had made some nice improvements building on ‘Sick With Bloom’; but once it starts to get under your skin and the nuances begin to reveal themselves there’s nothing quite like it. The field recordings from Tibet are only the icing on a rich, fascinatingly calm and natural yet grim and unsettling cake. Oustanding. Unique. In a banner year for Black Metal, this was the best.

…And that caps off the 2017 edition of LISTCRUSH. My utmost respect and admiration to all the artists that toiled in the darkness and blessed us with their blackened works last year. Think I missed anything? You’re probably right, send me your favourite shit. I’ll be chewing on a stack of remaining 2017 releases for the next few months anyway.

Hails 2017; bring on 2018.

-A

~

Get in early for next year: Email blackmetaldaily@outlook.com

Submissions welcomed.

Like Black Metal Daily on Facebook for more kvlt sounds and tonal blasphemy.

Personally, I’m a sucker for blackened noise. It almost seems a natural evolution from the early ‘fuck you’ sonics of the old days of black metal, trying to find the harshest anti-music possible to represent the hatred and agony portrayed in the lyrical themes. What better than squeals of distorted feedback howling at the limits of human ear tolerance to carry on the legacy of pushing boundaries in search of audio evil? Well, here’s where american come smashing through the door with a rusty, disease covered chainsaw: Pushing the blueprint of black metal deep into industrial territory and experimenting further with each release, they’ve always been out to hurt you; but on the absolutely savage ‘Violate and Control’ (out through Sentient Ruin Laboratories/Fragile Branch/Shove Records) they’ve found a fresh new hell. The Leviathan-esque black is blacker, the sludge sludgier and the ever-increasing use of power electronics and soul raping distorted noise plunges everything to a depth so sadistic it should probably be kept away from animals and small children.

It’s an astonishing assault, seemingly laid out to inflict maximum cruelty upon the listener. Songs land like blows from an abusive partner; when you’re exhausted, broken and crying and think it simply can’t get any more punishing, it does. Oh, it does. There are brief moments of respite, great riffs break through the industrial chaos and the agony lets up for a nanosecond… But ultimately, this is pure suffering, emotional and physical.

Nothing can save you once you’re deep into the album, it demands your soul as payment at the very least. The beatings begin unchecked on 23rd June and in the meantime they’ve generously sat down with us to answer a few questions, hot on the heels of the premiere of opening track ‘Visions of Great Faith’ that’s scored an exclusive stream through Metal Injection. Go check that out here, and read on below.

~

Hi guys, sincerest thanks for your time. First, a little history: What’s the story behind american and why does it exist?

Jim: Thanks for talking with us – We met through mutual friends in high school. We wrote the first few songs under the “american” moniker 6 or 7 years ago with no intention of releasing them. I don’t think we even have the tracks anymore.

Mike: We just started recording songs for the sake of recording in high school and eventually we cranked out that first demo for the fun of it.

Your new album ‘Violate and Control’ will be released on 23 June, and I don’t think I’ve heard a more punishing release in a long time. How would you describe this release and its intentions?

J: ”Violate and Control” explores our influences outside of the black metal genre. We set out to make the record we’ve been wanting to hear but had never been recorded and released by anyone else.

The album feels like it somehow has much colder, harsher and more depraved blood running through it than its predecessor. Was this influenced by anything or simply a result of natural evolution in the creative process?

M: I’d say natural evolution. We wanted it to be heavier.

J: Definitely heavier and something with a lot more impact. We challenged ourselves to create something a little more full and daunting, rather than just a second LP containing some songs we wrote over the last two years. I’d like to think we succeeded in doing that.

Do you feel the bleakness and negativity are a result of a mirror being held up to the external world and your environment, or is it more an expulsion of internal darkness?

M: Both.

J: american has always been and always will be self harm in the audio format for me.

How long did the writing and recording process take for this album, and do you have a particular favourite piece of gear you used to create it?

M: Way longer than the other releases. I’ve been using the same Jackson Rhoads for as long as we’ve been doing this so I’d say that’s my favorite piece of gear.

J: We have a lot of gear and other random stuff lying around our space and it’s hard to say what was used where. I think my favorite piece of gear on the album is the sheet of metal sampled on the track Submission Psalm. As for the entire creative process for this record, the overall experience was pretty intense. The whole thing took a little under two years, and started right after the release of Coping With Loss. We experimented with sampling ourselves this time around and that was an interesting dynamic for us.

The album is to be released on tape and vinyl through the excellent Sentient Ruin Laboratories. You seem to have a great relationship with them. At what point did they come into the picture and what drew you to each other?

M: M hit us up after hearing the demo and mentioned he was starting a label. I think we agreed after hearing the other tapes he wanted to release along with ours, at least that’s when I got on board.

J: M believed in us for some reason. I’ll never understand why, but we appreciate everything he has done for us.

You guys have recently done an absolutely fucked up cover of Amebix – ‘Spoils of Victory’. Total savagery, I personally prefer it over the original and would love to hear you mutilate more classics. What originally drew you to choose this particular track, and do you have plans for any more covers in the future?

J: Sean at Cvlt Nation approached us about covering Spoils for a comp after another band had backed out. Writing that cover was tough because we actually lived about 200 hundred miles away from each other at the time and composed most of it over email and then recorded it in a friend’s basement in one night. In terms of covers in the future, we have a special plan we’re hard at work on.

You seem to have a knack for discovering samples that plumb the very depths of human suffering then pairing them with annihilating sounds so soul-draining they crush any hope left in the listener; there’s one track in particular on this album that’s almost impossible to recover from once you’ve heard it. Where do you come across these samples, and how do you decide which ones are perfect for inclusion on the album?

J: To be honest, I just collect these things and store them away until I need them. Having a library like that is just really useful, especially for us, when it comes to staying on point with what we’re writing. Could never reveal where these things come from, though. That would ruin my fun.

Amidst the various other black/sludge/noise influences, in places I can hear definite Ministry vibes on this album. Are you guys fans? Are there any other artists you’ve been particularly inspired by that you’d recommend?

M: Yeah Ministry is sick.

J: I’m a big fan of Ministry. Depeche Mode, FFH’s “Make Them Understand”, and most of the releases from the Australian label Fanaticism (https://fanaticism.bandcamp.com) provided a lot of inspiration for me personally this time around.

Has american ever caved in some heads by performing live, or are there any future plans to subject audiences to that kind of sadistic onslaught?

M: Never have. I’d like to.

J: We’re writing music that keeps getting more and more complicated to reproduce live. Someday we’ll do it. We only want people who share the same vision involved.

I find your discography, and even this album alone, becomes more intense as you travel through it. What’s next for the band, how far can you take this brand of audio agony?

M: Only time will tell.

J: I’m sure it will only get worse from here.

Thanks again for your time, I look forward to you causing more misery. Any last words?

J: Paw aka øjeRum did the art for this record and he killed it. His music is beautiful too.